No. 4 Lady T-Birds beat Howard, pick up 30th-straight home win

HOBBS, N.M. — The fourth-ranked New Mexico Junior College women's basketball team continued its winning ways at home as the Lady Thunderbirds won their 30th straight at Caster Activity Center on Tuesday with a 77-44 victory over Howard College.

NMJC (25-2, 12-1), which already has the WJCAC title wrapped up for the fourth-straight year, hasn't lost at home since Jan. 28, 2013 (a 52-50 loss to Odessa).

The Lady T-Birds trailed by as much as seven points early in the game and were behind 20-18 with less than five minutes left in the half.

But a pair of free throws with 5:00 left by Angelica de Paulo – who had an ouststanding first half – ignited the Lady T-Birds' 13-2 run to end the half.

de Paulo's two free throws with 27.4 left in the half capped the run to give NMJC a 31-22 lead going into the break. de Paulo scored nine points during the run and had 21 of her game-high 29 points in the first 20 minutes.

NMJC led 35-28 early in the first half before a Kelsey Criner bucket with 17:16 left started a 17-3 run for the Lady T-Birds – capped by an Antoina Robinson bucket to make it 54-31 with 10:37 left in the contest.

To go along with de Paulo's 29 points, Criner and Alana da Silva each had 10 points.

Rosemary Rits led Howard Collage with 11 points.

NMJC shot 49.2 percent from the field in the game while holding Howard College to 38.1 percent.

The Lady T-Birds also forced 22 turnovers while committing just nine.

NMJC concludes the regular season Thursday on the road at Clarendon College.